Wild Bird Pests!! How to get rid of them?

[PouleNoire]

When we first moved in 48.5 years ago, there was a farm across the utility easement from us. When starlings were startled they would rise in a dark cloud of bodies,and fly one direction, then reverse. Then they would settle back down. We had never seen so many birds grouped together like that. It truly looked like "The Birds," movie.

The farmer eventually sold out to a development that would put in hundreds of houses.
That ended the starling problems almost instantly. But digging foundations for houses and roads, drove tons of garter snakes out into the adjacent neighborhoods like ours.

The snakes were everywhere and believe me anything that can make people scream can't be healthy. They were hanging off tree branches, and turning up everywhere, it was horrible!. Fortunately our village is very heavy with Forest preserves, and I imagine the snakes eventually found their way there.

Then they were putting in sewers and city water lines and the rats were all over. After all that I realized progress wasn't harmless.

Oh wow, that sounds really bad. I'm glad, the birds seem to be our only major problem regarding wild animals as of yet, knock on wood!

 

[red horse ranch]

We have this crazy wild bird problem! Sometimes, in the mornings as we let the chickens out numbers in the range of 40-50 birds will fly out of the coop! The birds are wild pigeons and these black things that we don't know what they are, annoying birds is what we call them. They poop ALL OVER stuff in the chicken coop and eat all of their food and scratch!

Anyone else have this problem and/or ideas to help GET RID of these birds!! They have been doing this all winter and don't show signs of stopping now that it's spring.

The others are right that the black birds are probably starlings. We have clouds of them coming in the winter and they land in the tree that is in the chicken yard. Hubby keeps his shotgun with bird shot handy and usually gets 4 to 6 birds at a time. After a few days of this the birds get the idea that this isn't a real good place to be. I realize this probably isn't an option for most people but it's what we do.
Starlings carry a lot of disease and they are not a protected species. They are not a good thing to have around poultry or any other animals.

 

[RWise]

They go good with stuffing,,,
When I was a young man, my brother and I stepped out the front door with our shotguns. The tree in front was covered with "blackbirds". We got a number 2 wash tub full with 3 shots each. Now we were raised that if you shoot it you eat it. They were great and have never used that tree again, some 50 years later.
BTW not much meat on them,
pop out the breast
and toss the rest